Writers In The Schools (WITS)

Alki Elementary is proud to continue our partnership with Seattle Arts & Lectures to bring the Writers in the Schools program to our students in grades 1-5. Our amazing Alki writers will be working throughout the year with our WITS instructor, Jeanine Walker.

Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools program places professional local writers in public elementary, middle, and high school classrooms to spark interest and develop skills in reading and writing. Since its founding in 1994, the program has served K-12 public school students and teachers in the Puget Sound region. In the 2015-2016 school year, the program worked with over 5,800 K-12 students and 141 teachers in 25 public schools across four school districts: Highline, Port Townsend, Seattle, and Shoreline, as well as at Seattle Children's Hospital. Many other students and teachers benefited through the program's spotlight author visits, public readings, complimentary tickets to Seattle Arts & Lectures' events, and writing contests. By encouraging students to write about what they know best—themselves—WITS helps students find their own, authentic voices.

Alki WITS writer: meet Jeanine Walker!

Jeanine Walker is a poet who holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Cimarron Review, Cream City Review, Gulf Coast, Narrative, PageBoy, and Web Conjunctions. She has performed at many venues around town and is the host of the popular reading series Cheap Wine & Poetry.